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Strategyzer's Value Proposition Canvas Explained

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4.1 What is a minimum viable product (MVP)?

An MVP proves or disproves one's assumptions about a problem. The objective is to find out which of your assumptions are wrong by getting feedback on your product from real users as quickly as possible.

Minimum means building the product with the smallest amount of resources. At the same time, an MVP must be viable or complete enough to prove or disprove your assumptions. Your goal here is to validate or invalidate your hypotheses on problem-solution fit.

MVP can be thought of as a process: Identify your riskiest assumption (i.e., what users want, how the design should work, what marketing to use), find the smallest possible experiment to test that assumption, and use the results of the experiment to correct your course.

4.2 Determine what you want to test

You can use MVP to test product and marketing concepts.

You can use qualitative or quantitative tests of the marketing or product MVP.

Marketing MVPs help ensure that your messaging resonates with customers, and aid in quantifying the expected conversion. Below are a few examples of both qualitative and quantitative approaches to testing a marketing MVP.

Qualitative marketing MVP tests

Shows customers your marketing materials for feedback e.g., flyers, landing pages, videos, ads, emails.

Ask: How compelling is the marketing material and why? What benefits resonate? (You could even ask them to compare to a competitor's marketing materials).

Quantitative marketing MVP tests

Landing page: describes the product, asks for some expression of interest - typically a "sign up" button.

Ad campaign: display ad campaigns to test messaging and images (Google, Facebook).

Marketing A/B testing: test two alternative marketing material designs concurrently to see which converts better.

Product MVPs will help you make sure customers see value in the actual product. When constructing your MVP, it is useful to think about options based on "fidelity", or how closely your MVP represents the real product, and "interactivity", which measures how much the customer can interact with the MVP relative to a live product. A few product MVP examples, in order from low to high fidelity, include:

Prototype design tools: Human-centered design, UI/UX principles

Explainer video resources: Minimum viable products

How many customers should I test with?

One customer at a time! Avoid group dynamics - people are more comfortable sharing real thoughts if they are alone with you. You can interview multiple customers at once if you need feedback quickly, but note the challenges.

Consider testing in waves of 5-8 customers, uncover issues, revise the MVP, then go back out again. Have one person take notes while one gives the interview. The fewer the observers the better.

Do I test in-person or remote?

In-person is preferable as you can observe their facial expressions, focus, reactions, etc. You can also build a relationship that could help make them feel more comfortable giving feedback.

How do I find customers?

Refer to the personas you created. Where do they live, do business, congregate?

Market / customer research companies are an option in some markets, and may allow you to hire recruiters.

Do I compensate people for testing my MVP?

This will depend on the company, market, and target user. Some companies will use mobile airtime as an incentive, some consider the use of an MVP as a benefit itself, you can also provide early admission to the full product for MVP testers.

Do I record the interaction?

It can sometimes be useful to record the audio or video of a test, but make sure you get consent. Note that a lot of people do not like being recorded.

How do I create a product MVP test?

Develop a test script for the entire conversation, including the steps you want the user to take. Test it on your team members first. Anticipate an MVP test taking 1-2 hours per person.

1. Start by spending a few minutes getting to know the person, and setting expectations. Make sure they know you want them to give honest feedback, even if it is negative. Ask how they feel about what they are using now, how it works, and their current frustrations.

2. Ask questions and observe, but don't lead. If a customer does something curious, ask them why they took that action: "I see you did this, can you tell me why?"

3. Ask open questions, which begin with "why", "how", and "what", rather than a question with yes/no responses. Write your questions in advance so that you are not distracted.

4. If the user has challenges understanding or using the product, your job is to understand the issue - not to help them - to keep the test as real as possible. You are a fly on the wall! After the test wraps up, you can answer questions or respond to challenges they had.

5. Ask if they would be like to be notified when the product comes out.

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Problem / Solution Fit - Catalyst Fund Toolkit

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4.1 What is a minimum viable product (MVP)? An MVP proves or disproves one's assumptions about a problem. The objective is to find out which of your assumptions are wrong by getting feedback on your product from real users as quickly as possible. Minimum means building the product with the smallest amount of resources.

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Solve complex problems in a way that fits the state of your customers.

Succeed faster and increase your solution adoption by tapping into existing mediums and channels of behavior.

Sharpen your communication and marketing strategy with the right triggers and messaging.

Increase touch-points with your company by finding the right problem-behavior fit and building trust by solving frequent annoyances, or urgent or costly problems.

Understand the existing situation in order to improve it for your target group.

1. Customer State fit: to make sure you understand your target group, their limitations and their currently available solutions, against which you are going to compete.

2. Problem-Behavior fit: to help you filter out the noise and identify the most urgent and frequent problems, understand the real reasons behind them and see which behavior supports it. Is this behavior weak or infrequent - is it a problem worth solving?

3. Communication-Channel fit: to helpyou sharpen your communication with strong triggers, emotional messaging and reaching customers via the right channels.

4. Solution guess: translate all the validated data you have gathered into a solution that fits the customer state and his/her limitations, solves a real problem and taps into the common behavior of your target group.

The goal: to help you understand your target group, their limitations and their available solutions, against which you are going to compete.
Questions to answer:

Who is your customer?

What limits your customer from acting when a problem occurs?
E.g. Spending power, network connection, available devices.

What solutions are available to the customer when he or she is facing the problem?

What has he/she tried in the past?

What are the pros/cons of existing solutions?

The goal: to help you filter out the noise and identify the most urgent and frequent problems, and understand the real reasons behind them and the behavior that supports them, i.e. Is this behavior, weak, infrequent, not intense enough? Is this a problem worth solving?
Questions to answer:

What problem do you solve for your customer?
There could be more than one, explore it.

How often does this problem occur?

What is the cause of every problem on the list?

What does your customer do about the problem currently (around it / directly or indirectly related to it)?

How often does this related behavior happen?

The goal: to help you sharpen your communication with strong triggers, emotional messaging and reaching your customers via the right channels.
Questions to answer:

What triggers customer to act?

Which emotions do people feel before / after this problem is resolved?Use it in your communication strategy.

Where online does this behavior happen?
Extract online and offline channels from the Behavior block.

The goal: tomatch gathered data to the best solution that fits into customer behavior and constraints.
Rules of this block:

If you are trying to find a new solution to an existing problem, fill in this block after you've got a better overview of the real situation (complete the other boxes first).

If you are working on an existing solution (exploring growth strategies, problem with activation or solution adoption), then fill this block first, and then see whether your solution is still relevant after all the other blocks are filled in.

Try to spot patterns and repeated keywords (i.e. Searching in Google, collecting on Pinterest) by listing problems and behavior related to it.

For higher chances of solution adoption:

Think of possible solutions that fit the user state limitations, tap into existing behavior, resemble what is already familiar to your target group.

Take the best from alternative solutions - simulate natural triggers and tap into existing customer behavior, design a solution that is useful (solves a real problem), understandable (resembles what people already know) and accessible (available via the channels where these people are).

After giving it a first try you will likely realize that you were focusing on a different (less urgent or infrequent) problem, or that the real cause of the situation is worthy of attention. Extract repeated keywords (mediums, devices, situations), frequent behavior and emotions. That's your cheat sheet towards a solution with a higher chance of adoption.
General approach.

1. State your Vision.

2. Define customer segment.

3. Fit within customer limitations and differentiate / be better than available solutions.

4. Solve a frequent*, urgent or costly problem by analyzing its root/cause, fit into frequent*/natural/familiar behavior which is directly or indirectly related to the underlying problem.

5. Identify triggers that work in real life, and emotions (before/after) to strengthen your communication, so that you can activate your potential customers via online and offline channels, by designing a solution that fits customer limitations, problems and existing behavior.

6. Your solution might become different over time, adjusting to an ever-changing market landscape, but your Vision should stay the same.

Solving frequently-occurring problems increases touch-points with customers and helps your company to gain trust on the way to the bigger goal. This is the first step to solving a bigger problem scope that might be too broad to tackle all at once from the start.
This canvas has gone through 10+ rounds of significant changes and iterations based on feedback from entrepreneurs, corporate innovators, UXers, growth hackers, colleagues and friends.
Daria Nepriakhina,
Creator of Problem-Solution fit canvas

Do you need help to get started with it? Maybe you know about cool challenges on which we can work together or think along? Connect with me via email: daria@solutioncanvas.com or Skype: allbookerka.

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Solve complex problems in a way that fits the state of your customers. Succeed faster and increase your solution adoption by tapping into existing mediums and channels of behavior. Sharpen your communication and marketing strategy with the right triggers and messaging.

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Concise

Lean Canvas forces you to distill the essence of your product. You have 30 seconds to grab the attention of an investor over a metaphorical elevator ride, and 8 seconds to grab the attention of a customer on your landing page.

Effective

Whether you're pitching investors or giving an update to your team or board, our built-in presenter tools allow you to effectively document and communicate your progress.

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Lean Canvas forces you to distill the essence of your product. You have 30 seconds to grab the attention of an investor over a metaphorical elevator ride, and 8 seconds to grab the attention of a customer on your landing page.

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Lecture 4 - Building Product, Talking to Users, and Growing (Adora Cheung)